most important scene of the entire series. this scene in a nutshell describes the entire failure of the war on drugs. snatch n rips and military interdiction is one thing but when you follow the money trail, what you see is a systemic institutional failure as this dirty money goes to the banks, corporations and politicans' coffers. the unwillingess of our government to follow this trail ascribes to the idea that "who knows where it will lead" and the inherent corruption it will expose.
Well, that and that black market's mean profits are accrued first by violence, only later by competition for customers. Don't get me wrong, the later season's focus on the competition for customers. But by designating a certain consumption behavior that by itself harms nobody other than the user a "crime," the government starts creating loopholes in the common law process of proving someone deserves to have their rights taken. And you are right: a lot of money sloshes in those loopholes.
Abbiyaahwu Asha Or as Lester said follow the money. Like Nisha and Bharat Patel drowning in 3 ft of water in an above ground pool. Every detective, cop, LEO knows that’s impossible. Do they have the heart to do the work though and follow the money??? Or course not.
@@RikerLovesWorf The more often I watch, the more I notice weird overdubs and green screen. Or maybe it's just the effect of HD? The famous Bunny to McNulty "F the bosses" looks green screen as hell..
I have immense respect for Lester for not treating Prez like the buffoon he was made out to be. Everyone thought that of him, including himself ("corporate who?!"), until Lester gave him real work, and Prez found his forte.
Prez wasn't much when Lester found him in a Baltimore junkyard, but as it turned out, with a paint job and a tune-up, he ran like you wouldn't believe.
@@MM-vs2et he’s also one of the few people who has a relatively happy ending. Dukie fell through the cracks and it’s horrible. But Prez found a way to be a good teacher and help people. Not bad for a former cop too happy with his trigger.
This is one of those scenes that determines whether The Wire is the series for you. No hand holding or patience for those with low attention spans and a need for constant action, just a veteran police describing in detail how you follow the money.
There's a difference between teaching the audience things it needs to know and handholding. Teaching the audience things it needs to know is something every series does, and doesn't preclude treating them as intelligent or acting as if they have an attention span greater than a five year old. Handholding, by contrast, would involve simplifying the proceedings until the lowest common denominator viewer can keep up, followed by repeating that simplified explanation periodically so they don't forget.
This was where I finally felt the show was 'right', because this is exactly how you would go after a criminal enterprise, or business rival, or politician, anyone really. It's a puzzle you can't even see all the pieces to or the finished product, but find a piece which leads to another piece which leads to a part, and before long you can know a hell of a lot about someone/something
Lester wants payback. It may not be the same people, but it's the same bureaucracy that fucked him over that he is ultimately looking to put the screws into. love it
@@mkn.567 yeah honestly it confused me a bit at first why lester was down with mcnulty in season 5, but you said it best, he was good police but ultimately he wants some sort of payback ruining his career due to corruption
It's really cool to watch this, knowing that the two younger detectives end up becoming basically half of the Major Crimes Unit. It's hard to believe that Sydnor's not as into it at first, given how skilled he becomes. Of course Prez loves it from minute one.
I thought the hard to believe part was they had detective rank without knowing that process and being rigorously trained in it. This is Intro to Criminology/Criminal Justice-level knowledge.
It's not really that hard to believe. Prez was at that point largely considered a screw-up, so it's understandable that no one would have given a second thought to anything besides the most basic of training. Sydnor, while talented, was working the auto detail, which means that he would have never had the need to do the kind of in-depth work that Freamon went into here.
That pause leading into that quote and the way the line is delivered by Lester gives me the same sorta goosebumps you get from a really good reprise halfway through a song.
Bob Watson The same actor played a whacked out junkie/dealer in HBO’s The Corner which preceded The Wire. You would never think he could play Lester. The man has got great acting range.
One of the best scenes of the show. Dramatized education at its finest. Chernobyl was the same way - some of the best scenes in the show were the main character describing how nuclear reactors operate and how the Chernobyl reactor exploded.
When my last apartment building got sold by the original owners I couldn’t help but laugh when the new owner showed up with a business card that said B&B Enterprises. He said he never saw The Wire.
"You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don’t know where the fuck it’s gonna take you" Everything is said; thanks Lester!
Shows like the Wire and Game of Thrones understand that it's the dialog and character development that make a show great. Everything else...like action etc...is the cherry on top.
@@FoolyCooly011 No...it really isn't. You're just one of those types who think they're being cool by going against what they perceive as to much hype surrounding the show. It's far from a joke. It's one of the greatest shows ever made. But whatever...think whatever you want.
@@vesuvyan the irony of B-square as a drug front is funny. Like be square or be legit. I had a principal named bill goode. A principal writing B.Goode on a hall pass was almost too perfect.
One of the Best quotable part of the WIRE at 2:30. Lester was the M V P when came towards police investigations. He was always thorough. One of my favorite tv characters.
The Wire had no desire to hand hold its viewers... it showed you everything, the down and dirty police work, and never insulted your intelligence as a viewer
Cool Lester Smooth is the kind of man you don't say anything to unless it's a question. Everything to learn from him and nothing to teach him. Best detective of the series.
Lester's a good teacher- he doesn't admonish or tease the guys for not understanding or knowing what he's talking about, he just breaks it down for them.
Best character in the show was without a doubt Lester, as he was not only super smart (even beating McNulty at being the brightest guy in the room), but also his ability to be patient was not something to take lightly. He understood that the drug money doesn't just sit around to rot, but actually has to be used for a purpose and, from the knowledge he got on Avon Barksdale, Stringer Bell, and their entire operation, it was quite clear that the assets from their illegal activities were being deployed in a highly intelligent way, especially when one sees the Barksdale gang owning Orlando's Club and some other establishments. to truly gauge such a massive operation requires both brains and forbearance, something the audience can see Lester has the most of.
I was a copper/detective for fifteen years I often wonder which of these fine Poelease I would have been. I wanted to be as effortlessly debonair as Bunk, I thought I could be as diamond cut as Daniels, if I hadn't been a bit too much McNulty, I might have become Lester, but I couldn't rein it in, so in the end I think I was Prez.
Lester is the guy you want in your squad when you're playing a hardcore full loot MMO. He's the one who will crawl around prone examining the enemy's base at 3:00AM when none of them are on and find the one tiny weakness in their base construction that will let you break in to their loot chest room without using a ton of your own resources.
Different skill set. Lester followed money better than anyone. Bunk excelled at "hand-to-hand" exchanges with characters like Omar. Bunk was also an amazing forensic investigator at crime scenes.
All of them have their major strengths. Freemon was analytical when it comes to breaking down the infrastructure. No one could see a crime scene imo like Bunk. Even with Jimmy amazing at the small details and Kima is a wiz with the CI work
@@SmokinAcesProd kima was the one who could see a crime scene bunks greatest asset was his connection to the streets hell even Lester schooled bunk by finding lexs body bunk could barely put it together in his head
@@SmokinAcesProd ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-o5vWGV1rqkA.html I think Lester was a cut above. Lester is a doing his Sherlock Holmes impersonation in his head and Bunk is oblivious to the fact that they're both standing right in front of the crime scene.
This scene is practically a standard exposition scene, but it also shows one thing that separates Lester and McNulty. Both are natural police, and both also know how to defy their superiors, BUT Lester has the capacity to be a _mentor_. Throughout the show, it’s pretty clear that Lester has the necessary social skills to deal with both his superiors and his subordinates. It is telling that, after Prez killed that undercover cop, he asked Daniels to tell Lester that he was sorry.
Just from a production standpoint It's interesting to watch this scene after watching the rest of the series. I think this was the only time they ever did this kind of clippy montage, voice over type scene. Not knocking it, it's a great scene. Just interesting to watch them try different things before they hit their groove.
I noticed that too, this being the only montage sequence I’m aware of. The show usually loves to “show, not tell”. In this case, maybe they had to do a bit of both to save time.
The finest tribute Lester received for his brain and his work was in the final season: Daniels sits him down, looks him squarely in the eye and says with respect, "Motherfucker, you ARE the major crime unit"
You can see why Prez holds Lester in such high regard in the later seasons. This was the sort of detective work that Prez was most suited for and Lester gave him many opportunities to shine, and made Prez feel like what he was doing was important (which it was)
every time I see this scene i think of all the crimes lester could've solved if they hadn't dumped him in that pawn shop unit for 13 years....and 4 months
Love this show. It's my favorite of all time. This scene is dating itself now, though, as all the stuff they're talking about here can now easily be done online without ever having to visit any courthouse or department building. The power of this scene might change a little bit if all Prez and Sydnor had to do was sit at the table in front of a laptop all day.
Lester proves why people wanted him locked in a hole. He’s not just good or natural police, he’s a true detective. He’s rolled away the stone and is not gonna let it come back. Unfortunately, Jimmy is in the same situation as Lester at the end of the series. And if there is a sequel series, I hope Jimmy comes back as the new Lester.
After the records were all digitized, this entire scene's explanation got replaced by a single SQL query that Lester ran from his desk while waiting for glue to dry.
Lester Freeman is what you would call solid police, he's been in his career for over 20 years and he posts every single string that no rookie in five years would think to do, he's my favorite character out the police, on The wire, he's a thinker, uses critical assessment on the scene and in the books.
@betatalk357 D&B could have have meant something like that. Though Orlando's wasn't seized because of his drug arrest, Orlando was forced to sign away his ownership immediately after he was arrested by Levy, remember ?. By the time the Police raided the club it had a different owner.
Biggest mistake of the higher-ups wasn't putting Lester in the pawn-shop for 13 years and 4 months, it was not realizing that all that time, he became talented in the very thing he hated the most, paperwork and office work.
"You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don't know where the fuck it's gonna take you." Things wrong with the world; A bunch. And no one is making good fan art of Lester Freamon
Lotta people don't know about David Simon's original West Baltimore HBO mini-series The Corner. It serves as almost a prequel to The Wire and features many of the same players. And it's on RU-vid. And they got dem spidabags -- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CpOkjzr3vBk.html
I love this scene and Lester’s knowledge drop. The sound mixing throws me. Lester turns into a passive narrator there for a bit. His voice over monologue feels like it’s been done all in one take in a studio. Feels too much like a book on tape. Not sure if that’s on purpose or not. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was. It’s not exciting but it’s vastly important.
Correct me if I’m wrong: So Prez pulled names off the corporate charter for D&B Enterprises and used them to cross reference any other businesses or names Avon may own. Sydnor then uses those names to find the addresses at city land records, thus pinpointing the businesses that are no doubt fronts and houses are probably being for Electricy like Wallace and the other hoppers house or a stash house. I may be a off, it’s a lot to follow at first.
I studied journalism in college. Everything Lester is teaching the rookie cops is the same stuff they taught me: Follow the paperwork, follow the money. If you got a scandal on your hands, following the money is the biggest link to every corrupt SOB you will find.
